Our parent company, Claranet is one of Europe’s leading Managed IT services providers. Specialising in integrated hosting, networks and communications managed services, back by support and expertise 24x7

Medium/Large business? Have a look at how Claranet’s IT services help customers do amazing things.

Blog

Everyone will have heard about the cloud in one way or another, but what many people are yet to understand is how beneficial it could be for small businesses.

The cloud has several advantages which can increase business productivity and simplify getting things done. This has been proven by Green Fuel who have put in place an IT infrastructure which enables them to access working documents from the other side of the world. This became more and more essential to the company as 90% of their business is in exports.

Every business knows the importance of being protected from hackers and spam, but new data shows that businesses are more vulnerable than they may think.

Smartphones, desktops and laptops are devices which first come to mind when securely protecting your business, but what if someone told you that your business could now be hacked through certain household devices?

Devices such as kitchen appliances, home media systems and web-connected televisions are just some of the 100,000 devices which have recently been used to take part in a spam campaign which occurred between 23rd December and 6th January 2014. This campaign sent about 750,000 junk mail messages in total.

Migrating data from the current system you use to any new system can seem overwhelming and Office 365 is no different. It doesn’t need to be though. Many companies offer a data migration service that can help to take the stress away when adopting new technologies.

One of the main reasons that many people dislike changing their software they use is the fear of losing or being unable to access information they currently have and rely on. The good news is data can easily be migrated to Office 365 putting your mind at ease.

One main frustration is the thought of losing any of your valuable data or worse, your email client data not being compatible with your new software. So when choosing a new product such as Office 365, ensure that you check your current email client is compatible and can easily be converted to your new system to save any future frustrations.

Flexible working should no longer be a luxury in the office, instead, a necessity that benefits everyone. Being able to work from home can help improve your work life balance and productivity. Cloud solutions provide easy to use options that can help businesses put this in place.

Flexible working enables you and fellow employees to work from any location (home, commuting or working aboard). Many people can find it stressful travelling to other cities everyday due to long commutes or managing childcare and it can often create a negative mood before they step into the office. The main benefit of a cloud solution is the ability to work from home whilst having access to office based systems and documents.

In 2014 the Information Security and Breaches survey reported 45% of small businesses suffered infection from viruses and malware, with web-borne malware on the increase businesses are battling against keeping their Networks secure whilst reaping the benefits that online applications and tools bring.

Today more and more malicious exploiters are gaining access to websites without web owners being aware, one recent high profile case being celebrity chef Jamie Oliver whose site was targeted by hackers and was unknowably spreading viruses to its visitors. So how as a small business do you protect yourself? Plus, with more personal activity taking place on the internet how do you easily keep your workforce on task and productive?

Email is now a main source of contact between one person and another. More and more people have switched over to email from mainstream post and other messages such as fax to send each other important and confidential documents. When these documents are sent out people want to make sure that they are secure and that no security breach will occur. Email encryption is good way of protecting one partner. However if you want to make sure all of the emails you send out to your contacts are secure then email policy based encryption may work better for you.

Email Encryption would automatically safeguard the security and privacy of sensitive data. This can range from something such as credit card details or even more private emails that your customer wants to send and needs a security policy to feel comfortable.